My Passions

Most of you know that I have been studying the art of watercolor for several months now, I think it's going on like 9 months and I'm still overwhelmed with all the information that I have yet to devour.  LOL!  I recently purchased a video of Soon Young-Warren's painting water and have watched it several times now, trying to get a feel for the methods she uses in her own work, while incorporating a few of my own tricks along the way.  I haven't been sharing any of these paintings with you only because they were either not good enough, or barely good enough to be juried into a local show.  I have 2 currently hanging at the Sandy Senior Center here in town for our Spring Show-2014 and one waiting to see if it will be juried into the UWS Spring Show in Provo this year. 
Anyway, this little painting is of a photo I took of a koi down in the pond at the Flamingo Hotel in Las Vega, and using some of my mixed media techniques, I was able to get a pretty good likeness of the real fish.  To do this again on a larger scaled painting will be the challenge! 

Trip to DC

Thanks to my darling daughter, we actually have some fabulous photos from our recent trip back east to visit Washington DC.  Even though we lived in Virgina and toured DC quite often, we never get tired of exploring the many options available.  Here are just a few photos of the usual tourist sites.  Enjoy!

DC Photos

Meeting Up with Some Friends

A little over a week ago I had the privilege of meeting an old friend, for the very first time! That's right, I've actually known Cecilia for almost 5 years now, but had never met until recently. When DH and I started planning our vacation for this year, we both decided we needed to make a return visit to our old haunting grounds, Atlantic City. We contacted people we wanted to meet, who we knew lived in the area and some friends we have known for close to 10 years now. (Our card playing partners!) We were in luck-they all could come and join us for a get-to-know-you lunch and a catch-up dinner! What a fantastic time we had! I also got to met someone I hadn't corresponded with before and that was Cecilia's friend MaryAnn. These two are so darn close-you would think they were birth sisters and they made me feel like I was a long lost sibling too! It was great getting to know them and I wish I could have spent a lot more time with them. Thanks for sending the photos!! Love them!

Boise

The whole trip was planned around meeting up with some new friends, ladies I have the privilege of knowing through our yahoo group. Ladies I feel I have known for a very long time. Carolyn, Lynn, Barb, Judy, Merine and myself spent a wonderful, relaxing day doing art and getting to know each other on a more personal level. Unfortunately, I did not get any photos of us together. We were having so much fun, we didn't even think about grabbing some photos. It's such a wonderful thing to be able to have friends share art days together and I want to "Thank Them" for making me feel right at home.

Marina

I couldn't resist sharing this awesome photo with you. I tracked this guy down for several long minutes, took several shots of him, but only this one was worthy of saving.

Bear Lake

Before we started making the trip back home, I had hubby stop at the Marina for a few quick shots. Here are two of my favorites.

Family Visit

Part of our trip was a visit to Bear Lake to meet up with our twin daughters and their families for a birthday celebration. Our daughters had their 35th birthday and we got a wonderful opportunity to visit with everyone, including our grandkids. They absolutely loved playing on the tramp, going for wagon rides, chasing bubbles their sister was making and just generally having a great time. Yup-This is the triplets with their Daddy! They sure have grown and are 15 months old now. Wow! Time sure has flown by.

Shonshone Falls

This photo was taken from the observation deck across the river from the falls. This is a state park, which also offers a really old concept of river swimming. Up the river a ways, they have roped off a swimming hole for families to enjoy the cool water and have a wonderful picnic area. This brought back many memories of some fun adventures while I was growing up. I thought the practice of a family swimming hole was a thing of the past. Unfortunately I did not get a picture of the area.

Twin Falls-Cassia County Museum

We decided to spend a day in Twin Falls to explore the many adventures that this town had to offer. We discovered a wonderful little museum in the heart of town, right next to the county fair grounds, which was in full swing. This is a photo of the one room school house that had been donated and moved to the museum grounds. While not everything was fit to the period, it was still a very interesting place to visit.